“What do we need to do as a business to provide a great outcome, [or] as a minimum meet the expectations of the customers? It’s all about meeting those customer demands in your market, and meeting the trends.”

Langford explained that digital has a role to play in enhancing customer experience, by helping a company understand who its customers are more clearly via data.

“Digital’s role, certainly with data, is to try and close the ecosystem a little bit so we can start to have a more holistic view of how our customers are connecting across the channels,” she said.

‘Group-wide capabilities’

By taking this data, and learning from it, Big W hopes to move from the more traditional ‘sales-based planning’ towards more ‘intent-based planning’.

“There’s a lot of work that we’re doing at the moment to help data inform decisions on inventory forecasting, that’s intent-based, to help us get better at efficient processes,” said Langford.

“Obviously, we’re in a world now where price is really important, it’s not the only thing, but it’s really important.

“Most importantly is the data that gets us to better understand our customers. One to one, but also one to many.”

The company’s click-and-collect offer, Pick Up, has allowed physical interactions with its online customers, said Langford.

“There’s actually a deliberate decision to go in-store as a service desk experience, there’s a conversation and interaction that’s positive, and they are a different customer to our home delivery customer and our bricks-and-mortar customer.”

Langford noted that Big W’s parent company, Woolworths Group, is investing in capabilities that can run across the entire organisation, with each of the group’s brands to bring special skills relevant for their own industry while benefiting from the shared technology.

“From the Big W perspective, our first refresh is ensuring that all [of] the products that are available in-store are also available online, in search as well as the shop. We are also now looking at extending products beyond the store where it makes natural sense to be a part of the brand experience for us.”

Langford added that endless aisle is on the road map for the company, but didn’t specify when the feature would be rolled out.